The unity of the Church is one of the great misunderstood
notions of history. This is understandable because the unity of the Church is
not a human idea but a mystery of revelation — one almost as profound as the
mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

Many modern people are sure they have a quick and easy
understanding of the unity of the Church.

Not a few people have a notion of the Church as “what the
apostles cooked up to occupy their time after Jesus departed the scene.” That’s
why so many people speak of the Church as a “mere human institution.”

If they are unbelievers, this human institution is generally
seen as a fellowship of liars or deluded fools.

If they are believers, they often see the Church as a bunch
of people who are well-meaning followers of Jesus, but not as a divine
institution possessing a superhuman unity.

Many believers fancy unity is based on human effort, so they
imagine that unity consists of Christians all agreeing with each other in a
monolithic fashion and doing the same stuff.

Since a bare glance at the Christian world confirms that
this seldom occurs, many people therefore conclude that the unity of the Church
is an “ideal” that is virtually never achieved and, in real life, probably
shouldn’t be achieved.

That’s why the Catholic Church is constantly being berated
as “totalitarian” or “authoritarian” by its critics. Though there is sometimes
a sentimental attachment to “once upon a time unity” (“Way back when, during the
New Testament, believers were all in one accord …”) the fear is that “unity” in
real life today means having your individuality digested by a sort of
collective in which all drones think, talk and do the same.

In this view, the unity of the Church is a sort of
self-hypnotic mass achievement of its members: a terrifying destruction of the
distinctiveness of the person for the sake of the hive.

But the startling truth is this: The unity of the Church is
not based on our achievements any more than our salvation is. The unity of the
Church, like the holiness of the Church, is a metaphysical reality that exists
now, whether we realize it or not and whether we like it or not.

That’s because the Church, unlike any merely human society,
is the only organization that exists before it has any members.

The Church is the body of Christ, who is its head. It is he
therefore — not we — who is the guarantor of its unity just as he is the
guarantor of its holiness.

His Spirit is the soul of the Church and it is his Spirit
that holds the whole thing together and makes it holy, not our personal
goodness or intellectual integrity.

The fact that Christ, and not we, is the basis and guarantor
of the Church’s unity does not mean that we can just coast or do whatever we
like.

Paul urges the Ephesians to “lead a life worthy of the
calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).

We can, of course, break with the unity of the Church by
heresy or schism. But that does not mean the unity of the Church breaks. It
merely means that we break with the unity of the Church.

When we sin against the unity of the Church by heresy or
schism, we break something in ourselves. But the unity of the Church remains —
albeit wounded. For it is Christ, not us, who constitutes the unity of the
Church.

The really interesting thing, however, is not that we can
break with the unity of the Church through sin. It’s that we can be partners
with Christ in maintaining it. And the really interesting thing is how Paul
says we do that.

The essence of Paul’s moral teaching is not “Follow this
list of rules.” His instruction boils down to this: “Become who you are.”
That’s what he’s saying in the passage above.

In other words, he’s saying that Christ is the essential
thing, the basis and guarantor of the Church’s unity.

Now that you are in Christ through baptism and the other
sacraments, stay put, imitate him, and the unity of the Church will happen in
and through you because Christ cannot contradict himself. That’s a whole
different world from rules and regulations, consensus building, group therapy,
collectivization or the various other schemes we humans have concocted over the
years in the quest for unity.

It’s also, by the way, the only thing that will ultimately
last and give us both the loving union with God and others and the personal
freedom our souls crave.